Federal judge admits sending racist Obama email

A federal judge on Wednesday insisted that he was not a racist even though he sent an email suggesting President Barack Obama’s mother had sex with a dog.

Chief U.S. District Judge Richard Cebull, who was nominated by President George W. Bush, admitted to the Great Falls Tribune that he had sent the racist email from his courthouse chambers.

Cebull forwarded the email titled “A MOM’S MEMORY” from his official courthouse email address to six people. It was eventually forwarded to the Tribune.

“Normally I don’t send or forward a lot of these, but even by my standards, it was a bit touching,” the email reads. “I want all of my friends to feel what I felt when I read this. Hope it touches your heart like it did mine.”

“A little boy said to his mother; ‘Mommy, how come I’m black and you’re white?’ His mother replied, ‘Don’t even go there Barack! From what I can remember about that party, you’re lucky you don’t bark!'”

Cebull agreed that the email was racist, but asserted that it was meant only as a private communication.

“It was not intended by me in any way to become public,” the judge explained. “I apologize to anybody who is offended by it, and I can obviously understand why people would be offended.”

“The only reason I can explain it to you is I am not a fan of our president, but this goes beyond not being a fan,” Cebull continued. “I didn’t send it as racist, although that’s what it is. I sent it out because it’s anti-Obama.”

He said his record as the chief judge for the District of Montana proves that he is not biased against other races.

“I have never considered myself that way,” Cebull said. “This is a private thing that was, to say the least, very poor judgment on my part. … I did not forward it because of the racist nature of it. Although it is racist, I’m not that way, never have been.”

About the Author

David Edwards has served as an editor at Raw Story since 2006. His work can also be found at Crooks & Liars, and he's also been published at The BRAD BLOG. He came to Raw Story after working as a network manager for the state of North Carolina and as as engineer developing enterprise resource planning software. Follow him on Twitter at @DavidEdwards.